Friday Bolts – 9.4.09

Fanhouse talked with Jerry Colangelo about the selection process for the 2010 World Championships: “So which of the

young players have the best chance to earn trips to Turkey? Colangelo mentioned four who participated in Las Vegas. Durant, Rudy Gay and the guard from Oklahoma City, (Russell) Westbrook. And Derrick Rose,” Colangelo said. “(Rose) can play better than he did (in Las Vegas) but we don’t base our decisions just on two or three days of camp.”

Reader Joel sent this in: “StubHub doesn’t think very highly of Thunder playoff chances. Otherwise they would have bothered updating our name.” (StubHub)

The Orlando Sentinel on KD’s Hong Kong tweet from yesterday: “They’re all so young. And weren’t much good last year. So it’s no surprise the Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t internationally known. Donyell Marshall offered this advice to Durant via his twitter: “@KevinDurant35 Well it’s up to you and Jeff Green to make them know who your team is” And Durant replied by mocking him: “@Uconn42 yessir…wats up wit u old man..im surprised u kno how 2 work a computer”

Etan Thomas wrote a rap song with Demarr Johnson about overcoming adversity and sports media. Listen here.

Dan Steinberg on Etan’s song and the meaning behind it: “Anyhow, we’re all extremely happy for Etan that he’s able to resume his career. And I’m all for artistic expression wherever it comes. I guess the only thing I’d tell him is this: no matter how many times Ivan Carter blogged about him, sales–very sadly–have not remained prevalent. Bad media news has flooded the pages like broken levees. Anyhow, we don’t get paid by the click, and a lot of writers–including Ivan–have always preferred not even to know their traffic numbers, ignoring them. You know, like platters of pork.”

Seriously, does David Kahn hate Jonny Flynn or does he just have a fetish for point guards? Now the Wolves may sign an offer sheet with Ramon Sessions. Was Chucky Atkins not good enough for you?

The NBA is instituting a Twitter policy it appears. David Stern talked with Yahoo about it: “Obviously, there is a happy medium between tweeting before the game and tweeting from our bench during the game,” Stern said by phone. “You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game.”

CBS Sports Ken Berger on Jordan’s induction and also about those who can attempt to carry the torch: “What will we be left with? Memories and highlights of Jordan walking on air, but that’s not all. We’ll be left with LeBron, Wade, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Chris Bosh. We’ll be left with Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Brandon Roy, Andrew Bynum and players whose names we don’t even know yet.”

Tyson Chandler says he’s completely healthy now: “It’s been crazy,” he said. “Before that trade, we had plans on making a championship run. Me and a couple of the other guys would always talk about it, saying we were just a piece away. Then when the [Thunder] trade hit, we were like, ‘We’re not going in that direction.’ The trade was reversed and I spent the year there, but we all knew in the back of our heads that this time was going to come, where I was going to get moved. It’s kind of like we were playing but it was always in the back of our heads that this wasn’t going to last very long.”

Update: Thanks to reader CHAN, here’s a good amount of pictures of Kevin Durant in Hong Kong.